Parties announce candidates in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, March 13: The Congress-led UDF and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led LDF announced their lists of candidates Thursday.

The state – which has 20 Lok Sabha seats – goes to polls April 10. In the 2009 elections the UDF won in 16 and the LDF in four constituencies.

While the Congress’s list was finalised in Delhi, the CPI-M’s list was readied here.

In the UDF list, there has been a bit of re-jig with the Congress conceding two seats to its allies – and deciding to pull out two members – P.T. Thomas (Idukki) and Peethamabara Kurup (Kollam). While P.C. Chacko will now be fielded from Chalakudy, his party colleague K.P. Dhanapalan will stand from Thrissur.

The Congress will contest 15 seats, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) two seats, the Kerala Congress (Mani), the Socialist Janata Dal and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, which defected from the LDF last week, will all contest a seat each.

The biggest surprise came from the LDF. For the first time, it decided to field people who are not full time party members in six seats, of which the CPI-M has fielded five and the CPI one.

The CPI-M named 10 party members and five non full time members, while the CPI has fielded a doctor from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and three full time party workers.

The Janata Dal (S), which got the Kottayam seat after tough bargaining, will name its candidate in the coming days.

The last date for filing nominations is March 22, scrutiny would take place March 24 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 26.